Rachel, a friend of mine from my Durham days posted on Twitter ‘It may be a snow day for some, however for those who are freelance and self-employed, snow days can often mean no pay days.’ She is right.
For many of us who are working in the gig economy disruption can have significant consequences. If your work requires you to be on site and you can’t get there then you have not fulfilled your part of the bargain. Indeed, my sister got stuck on her way down to Peterlee for three hours. That is time that she will never recover or get paid for.
I am in a more fortunate position. Some of my work is on-site and some of it is not. Last week I was delivering some training with Justin for the Rural Cultural Business Innovation Programme in both Alnwick and Hexham. This had to be done on location and we both made a determined effort to beat the weather to be there. With other work though, I am fortunate to be able to rearrange.
Sitting at home with the snow falling made me think about the resource that we cherish most, time. It is something that we have no real control over and never seem to have enough of yet with the weather closing in suddenly we find ourselves time rich.
This spell of bad weather has been an ideal time to get around to all of those administrative jobs that I never seem to have the time to complete. My email is caught up and I have been able to plan for the things I can do once the roads are freed up. OK, this may not be how I would want to use the time I had yet it has been very useful.
Perhaps the snow has been sent to remind us all to calm down sometimes. We should use the time to do what we want, catch up, read a book, make a snowman or drink tea and eat doughnuts.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 